The Similkameen Post

The scattered trees in dry grasslands that is a part of the scenery of the Similkameen Valley. This, however, is not the narrow part of the Similkameen, where the old Similkameen post stood.

The HBC’s Similkameen post was not constructed until spring, 1860, yet it is very much a part of BC’s fur trade history, and, interestingly, of my own family’s history as well.

When built, the Similkameen post stood near modern-day Keremeos, northwest of Osoyoos and west of Oliver, BC. Actually, the community it stands in today is Cawston, BC.

In 1860, Francois Deschiquette was sent north and west from Fort Okanagan, on the Columbia River, to build a trading house in the Similkameen valley, that would become a fur trade post. It would be part of the Fort Colvile district, alongside Fort Shepherd, on the Columbia River to the east. The post was generally called the Similkameen Post, but sometimes took the name of Keremeos, a First Nations word that means (I have been told) “a shallow place in the river where a horse can cross.”

When it began its trading career, the Similkameen Post was a simple structure, with living quarters and a storehouse. The man who built the post, and who was in charge of it for the first two years, was Francois (Francwa) Deschiquette. Bruce Watson has no information about the Similkameen Post itself, as (like me) his cut-off point is 1858, two years before the post was constructed. But here is what he has to say of Francois Deschiquette, from his book Lives Lived West of the Divide.   

Born in 1819, to Francois Ducharquette and Marie Okanagan (so he was Métis). Died in the Similkameen, August 1862. He was an apprentice at Fort Vancouver, 1836-1837; then worked in various positions at Fort Vancouver until 1845 (on occasion he was listed as a Middleman.) In 1845-46 he worked in New Caledonia; later he was employed at Thompson’s River (Kamloops), 1847-1849; and at Fort Colvile in 1852-1856. In 1856-1862 he was in charge of the Similkameen post, first as Interpreter and finally as Postmaster.

He was short and stout, and was said to have been intelligent and a very good businessman, although he liked his liquor. He quit the company in 1849 and retired to the Willamette, but re-engaged in 1852. When the Okanagan post was closed in 1860, he packed everything up and moved all the goods north of the boundary line, where he built the Similkameen post somewhere close to the old brigade trail. There he cultivated a few acres of land, raised oats, potatoes and other vegetables. In a quarrel with a Frank Peto (who seems to not be an HBC man), Deschiquette was shot, and he died of the wound sometime afterwards, likely at the Similkameen post. He was 42 years of age when he died, and his grave is on the banks of Blind Creek, “where the old Similkameen-Fairview Road winds up the hill.”  

Shortly after the post first opened, in September 1860, Edward Huggins of Fort Nisqually arrived at the Similkameen post with a herd of horses and mules which he had driven up from Fort Nisqually. I wonder where his trail led: I presume they shipped the animals by steamer to Fort Hope, and he and his crew then travelled the brigade trail over the Tulameen Plateau and along the Similkameen River to the location of the new Similkameen post. 

As I said above, Fort Okanogan, on the Columbia River, was closed down when Francois brought the goods north to build the new Similkameen post. At the time the new post was being constructed, Fort Colvile was being threatened with closure because it stood in American territory. However, the HBC did not withdraw from Fort Colvile until the spring of 1871, and the old bastion didn;t disappear until it burned down in the summer of 1911. Then in 1941, the entire location of the old fort slid under the waters of Roosevelt Lake, behind the Grand Coulee Dam. 

So, Francois Deschiquette died of his gunshot wound before the end of September 1862, and was replaced by Roderick McLean. The buildings were dilapidated when McLean took over the position, and it was also noted that the Similkameen post stood two miles away from the road that led through the valley. As it stood close to a spring, the post was also visited by swarms of mosquitoes and other insects. It was recommended that the Similkameen post be moved to a more open and fertile spot, with the old location on the spring being kept for horses and stock. A good idea: horses were especially valuable for trade with the Similkameen First Nations, and it seems that the winters in the narrow part of the Similkameen valley were milder, with no deep snows.

The second location for the Similkameen post was on Keremeos Creek, where the Dewdney Trail crossed it. So now it was right on the Dewdney Trail — a good business move! 

However, McLean was quickly replaced at the post, because contrary to instructions, he gave away goods on credit. Clerk John Tait took over his position at the Similkameen post. Business improved under Tait’s management, but unpaid debts from settlers were still a problem. A number of these debts were large: as much as $1,000 — which was a lot of money at that time. Interestingly, the settlers debts might have been caused by the loss of cattle and horses, supposedly in winter when it snowed.

The only other post near the Similkameen post was Fort Shepherd, built on the Columbia River in 1856. Fort Colvile still existed as well: Fort Shepherd was supposed to replace Fort Colvile but it never did. The First Nations people in the region of the Arrow Lakes preferred to trade their furs at Fort Colvile, which was near their preferred meeting place at Kettle Falls. Kettle Falls was their cultural centre.

Other events occurred in the district that would make a difference to the Similkameen Post. In 1858, gold was discovered at Rock Creek, and that gold find was the richest around at that time. In fact, the gold find at Rock Creek inspired the building of the Dewdney Trail. In 1865, silver was discovered at Wild Horse Creek in the Kootenays, and it became the terminus of the Dewdney Trail which ran through the Similkameen Valley, passing the Similkameen post. (One of my family members was the policeman at Wild Horse Creek, but he is not the family member I am going to speak of in this post).

So, not only did the Similkameen post stand in a good location for the fur trade, it was also in a good location for supplying the gold and silver miners. It was also well placed on the transportation routes, as it stood on the east-west transportation route through lower British Columbia, connecting the Kettle Valley and Forts Shepherd and Colvile, in the east, to Forts Hope and Langley in the west. And new settlers were also coming to the Okanagan: the Similkameen post could be easily reached by riding through the same pass that now provides a route to the Okanagan via Highway 3A.

We will get to the apples: but first, the wheat. Barrington Price was an English gentleman from an upper class family, who moved to the Similkameen Valley to lease the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Similkameen post and its ranch land. He arrived there in 1872, and leased the buildings and ranchlands that had been vacated in 1871. In 1877, Price opened a water-powered mill to turn locally-grown wheat into flour, and he also opened a store that served all the people who travelled along the Dewdney Trail to and from Wild Horse Creek and Fort Steele (built in 1864.) With local settlers now all growing wheat, he provided an important service with his grist (wheat) mill, and he also made money. When he upgraded his mill in the early 1880s, Price was able to separate the wheat from the bran to produce white flour — a new invention of that time.

This grist mill still exists. It is the Grist Mill and Gardens Historic Site, located in Keremeos, BC. I used to follow them on Twitter! That’s how I knew about them. 

Now, here’s my family connection: members of my Anderson family grew apples in the Kettle Valley, one valley over from the Similkameen Valley. 

When I looked at the site map for the Grist Mill and Gardens site (which is online), I noticed that they had an apple shed. Can this be the place where my family member, a nephew of Alexander Caulfield Anderson, sold his apples? I think it might be!

Here is who A.C. Anderson’s nephew was: William James Anderson was born in Bezwada (now Vijayabad) in 1861. His father was Lt. Colonel John Cumming Anderson, of some fame in India, and his mother was Anne Flora Maclean, born on the Isle of Rum in the Hebrides. William James Anderson graduated from the Royal Military College in December 1881 and obtained a commission in the 1st battalion of the West Riding Regiment in 1882. He served in India until 1888, where he enjoyed a four month hunting trip to Kashmir in 1886, and a four week shooting trip near Kalabagh. After a short stint in England where he became captain, he was stationed in Malta for two years — then Crete, where he was involved in an uprising in which seventeen Christians were massacred and a British officer murdered. He met his wife, Laura, (an American mission school teacher) and married her in Constantinople. William James returned to England in 1803, where he was made Lieutenant Colonel. In 1909 he retired after twenty years service, on a pension of 300 pounds Sterling a year because of chronic malaria and blackwater fever (a severe complication of malaria).   

After he lost most of his money in ill-advised investments, he tried farming on land that was poorly suited to agriculture. [His cousin was James Robert Anderson, the deputy Minister of agriculture at that time!] William James never attempted to reach his family, and my great-uncle James certainly did not know he was in British Columbia, but he worked hard at his farming and never complained, according to his children. He and his wife were community leaders in the settlement of Kettle Valley, and his wife taught Sunday School at the church. In 1914 he made a concerted effort to get back into the military and succeeded. He was killed in action at Gallipoli  on October 19, 1915, after taking over the command of the 5/9 Manchesters.

So here you go: we have the history of the Similkameen Post, which we know is more or less true. Then we have a story of the Keremeos Grist Mill, which is also more or less true, but very incomplete. I am not entirely sure whether my last story is true: did he bring his apples to the Grist Mill that was located in the next valley over? I don’t know. He might have done.

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved.

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